Lee County seeks six new resource officers

Sheriff says more school resource officers are needed on Lee County campuses.

Posted: Mon May 21 17:04:26 PDT 2018

Updated: Mon May 21 17:04:26 PDT 2018

Posted By: Wayne Hereford

Speech to Text for Lee County seeks six new resource officers

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back to wtva 9 news at six. i'm craig ford. and i'm emily leonard. a recent school shooting has local school districts in north mississippi thinking about school safety. lee county sheriff jim johnson made a pitch for six more resource officers for county schools at a board meeting this morning. wayne hereford joins us live from saltillo with more. thank you. sheriff jim johnson says that its just a sign of the times. the world is a more evil and dangerous place. and so its time to do something to protect the schools. ." sheriff johnson and lee county superintendent jimmy weeks came before the board looking for a deal. a deal that would pay for fifty percent of the cost of hiring six new resource officers for county schools. the schools have agreed to pay the other half. its an issue that one local resident supports . "moore ville had a soft-lockdown not too long ago and you know my step daughter goes there and you know its scary.you know i never thought something like that would happen in mooreville mississippi." both the sheriff and superintendent say they want money to keep something even worse from happening. "and we just want ot make sure that we are doing all that we can do and the best that we can do to keep our students and our teachers safe at school." "we already have school resource officers in place and i can tell you candidly thattheir prescence has prevented something that is immeasureable." board members say they know the resource officers could fill a great need. what they don't know right now is if the county can afford to pay more officers. "our administrator told us it would probably take a quarter-mill tax .i'm not for taxes .but i am one-hundred percent for taking care of kids. and i think that the rest of the supervisors would be on board with us." now the hiring of six new resource officers is by no means a done deal yet, the supervisors will take a couple of weeks to look at how they will pay for it. we will perhaps hear more at the next board meeting. reporting live from saltillo i'm wayne hereford wtva